The disclosure herein relates generally to electronic mail (e-mail) services that cause an interface representing a list of e-mail messages to be output for display at a client computing device.
Users of e-mail services sometimes receive a large quantity of electronic mail messages. In a typical electronic mail service, a mailbox interface showing a list of messages is displayed, and the user can read each message by selecting the message from the list, which causes the message to be displayed, such as by displaying the message in a preview area, displaying the message in a new window, or by changing the view in a current window from a mailbox view to a message view.
In these systems, the user's ability to assess the content of the message is limited. For example, a typical mailbox interface may display the name of the sender, the subject line of the message, the time at which the message was received, and the first few words from the body of the message. Thus, to assess the contents of the message and to take actions with respect to the message, users are typically required to open the message, such as by changing the current view to an interface that displays a copy of the message, or by opening a new window in which the message is displayed.